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Lower thermosphere minor gaseous constituents vertical transport by nonlinear gravity wave process, showing density scale height decrease from diffusive equilibrium
A survey of the components of the extragalactic universe is presented. Attention is given to galaxies, quasi-stellar objects, highly evolved or collapsed configurations, faint low mass stars, diffuse matter, the electromagnetic fields, neutrino flux, gravitational waves, and cosmic rays. Radio sources are discussed along with the requirements for an extragalactic theory of cosmic rays.
The paper considers the generation of electrostatic ion cyclotron turbulence in an isothermal isotropic magnetized plasma where the drift velocity is below that of the ion-acoustic threshold. The saturated turbulence spectrum is found to be that which results from anomalous nonlinear wave damping related to stochastic ion-orbit diffusion in configuration space. An expression is obtained for the collective electrical resistivity resulting from current-driven electrostatic ion cyclotron turbulence.
Explorer 45 measurements of pitch angle distributions (PAD's) of ring current ions were examined for evidence of charge exchange or pitch-angle diffusion as loss mechanisms for the ring current during a storm recovery phase. The observed rounding of the PAD's above a minimum parallel energy is seen as resulting from pitch angle diffusion driven by resonant interactions with ion cyclotron waves. Calculations of growth rates using observed ion fluxes and PAD's have shown that ion cyclotron waves can be significantly amplified by the ring current plasma. However, wave growth off the equator must be taken into account in order to understand the time evolution of the observed PAD's. Isotropic distributions at lower energies remain isotropic at L-values between 3 and 4 despite the presence of charge exchange losses. An explanation for this apparent inconsistency may be that ring current is dominated by some ion species other than protons during recovery phase.
Strongly peaked electrostatic emissions near 10.0 kHz and electromagnetic emissions near 0.56 kHz have been observed by the VLF wave detector on board Imp 6 on crossings from the earth's magnetosphere into the polar cusp during the occurrence of large magnetospheric substorms. The electrostatic emissions were observed to be closely confined to the cusp-magnetosphere interface. The electromagnetic emissions were of somewhat broader spatial extent and were seen on higher-latitude field lines within the cusp. Using these plasma wave observations and additional information provided by plasma, magnetometer and particle measurements made simultaneously on Imp 6, theories are constructed to explain each of the two classes of emission. The electromagnetic waves are modeled as whistlers, and the electrostatic waves as electron-cyclotron harmonics. The resulting growth rates predict power spectra similar to those observed for both emission classes. The electrostatic waves may play a significant role via enhanced diffusion in the relaxation of the sharp substorm time cusp-magnetosphere boundary to a more diffuse quiet time boundary.
An analysis is presented of the intensity variations of relativistic cosmic rays, at 1 AU, which are associated with the passage of a flare shock wave. The magnitude and time profile obtained is similar to that observed in flare-induced Forbush decreases, and the principal cause of the energy reduction is an increase in adiabatic cooling of the arriving particles due to prolonged containment behind the compressed field of the flare shock wave. The large decreases calculated for the smaller diffusion coefficients are inconsistent with observation, implying larger mean free paths than those traditionally assumed at these rigidities. The method presented may be used to study intensity variations associated with other large-scale structures of the interplanetary field, such as corotating interaction regions.
An analysis of data gathered over a period of 14 months by the S3-3 satellite has revealed the detection of 313 relativistic electron precipitation events with isotropic flux over the upward-looking hemisphere, of which the majority occur at night in a narrow latitudinal zone which is embedded within a broader region of intense energetic ion precipitation. Three classes of precipitation are found to be associated with strong, diffusion resonant scattering due to known magnetospheric plasma waves. It is also found that intense electron energy deposition is a major source of middle-atmospheric, odd-hydrogen and odd-nitrogen molecules at sub-auroral latitudes, leading to an observable catalytic destruction of mesospheric ozone.
When the Mach number of a supernova shock wave, propagating through the hot interstellar gas, is less than the critical value 2.76, the interaction of the shock with an interstellar cloud produces a reflected pressure pulse that propagates away from the cloud as an acoustic wave. A preliminary analysis indicates that about 4% of the energy of an exploding supernova shell is converted into such waves. When the postshock gas temperature exceeds 2 x 10 to the 6th K, waves as short as 6 pc are damped in less than a wavelength, returning the energy to the hot gas. Longer waves, especially at late stages, are less strongly damped, and are superposed in the hot gas to create a fluctuating magnetoacoustic field, with typical periods of about 100,000 years. In the warm neutral clouds at temperatures of about 8000 K these waves are rapidly damped by plasma slip (ambipolar diffusion), providing a heat source that may account for the temperatures of these clouds.
Adhesives and adhesive joints are widely used in various industrial applications to reduce weight and costs, and to increase reliability. For example, advances in aerospace technology have been made possible, in part, through the use of lightweight materials and weight-saving structural designs. Joints, in particular, have been and continue to be areas in which weight can be trimmed from an airframe through the use of novel attachment techniques. In order to save weight over traditional riveted designs, to avoid the introduction of stress concentrations associated with rivet holes, and to take full advantage of advanced composite materials, engineers and designers have been specifying an ever-increasing number of adhesively bonded joints for use on airframes. Nondestructive characterization for quality control and remaining life prediction has been a key enabling technology for the effective use of adhesive joints. Conventional linear ultrasonic techniques generally can only detect flaws (delamination, cracks, voids, etc) in the joint assembly. However, more important to structural reliability is the bond strength. Although strength, in principle, cannot be measured nondestructively, a slight change in material nonlinearity may indicate the onset of failure. Furthermore, microstructural variations due to aging or under-curing may also cause changes in the third order elastic constants, which are related to the ultrasonic nonlinear parameter of the polymer adhesive. It is therefore reasonable to anticipate a correlation between changes in the ultrasonic nonlinear acoustic parameter and the remaining bond strength. It has been observed that higher harmonics of the fundamental frequency are generated when an ultrasonic wave passes through a nonlinear material. It seems that such nonlinearity can be effectively used to characterize bond strength. Several theories have been developed to model this nonlinear effect. Based on a microscopic description of the nonlinear interface binding force, a quantitative method was presented. Recently, a comparison between the experimental and simulated results based on a similar theoretical model was presented. A through-transmission setup for water immersion mode-converted shear waves was used to analyze the ultrasonic nonlinear parameter of an adhesive bond. In addition, ultrasonic guided waves have been used to analyze adhesive or diffusion bonded joints. In this paper, the ultrasonic nonlinear parameter is used to characterize the curing state of a polymer/aluminum adhesive joint. Ultrasonic through-transmission tests were conducted on samples cured under various conditions. The magnitude of the second order harmonic was measured and the corresponding ultrasonic nonlinear parameter was evaluated. A fairly good correlation between the curing condition and the nonlinear parameter is observed. The results show that the nonlinear parameter might be used as a good indicator of the cure state for adhesive joints.
A flux dropout is a sudden and sizable decrease in the energetic electron population of the outer radiation belt on the time scale of a few hours. We simulated a flux dropout of highly relativistic 2.5 MeV electrons using the Radiation Belt Environment model, incorporating the pitch angle diffusion coefficients caused by electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves for the geomagnetic storm events of 23-26 October 2002. This simulation showed a remarkable decrease in the 2.5 MeV electron flux during main phase of the storm, compared to those without EMIC waves. This decrease was independent of magnetopause shadowing or drift loss to the magnetopause. We suggest that the flux decrease was likely to be primarily due to pitch angle scattering to the loss cone by EMIC waves. Furthermore, the 2.5 MeV electron flux calculated with EMIC waves correspond very well with that observed from Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle EXplorer spacecraft. EMIC wave scattering is therefore likely one of the key mechanisms to understand flux dropouts. We modeled EMIC wave intensities by the Kp index. However, the calculated dropout is a several hours earlier than the observed one. We propose that Kp is not the best parameter to predict EMIC waves.
The transport of fast (about 1 MeV) protons in the corona is considered when their density and ansiotropy are sufficiently large to excite Alfven waves. The Alfven waves scatter the protons and make them almost isotropic. The Alfven wave instability remains in a marginally stable state in which the proton anisotropy is just large enough to excite Alfven waves to a level which would eliminate any greater anisotropy. The protons propagate diffusively down a coronal loop and have a path length of order 100 times their length in the absence of Alfven waves. This increases their Coulomb losses, and much higher energy protons (2-20 MeV) are required initially to produce H-alpha impact line linear polarization in the chromosphere as compared to the case in the absence of Alfven waves (about 200 keV) for loop lengths about 10 to the 9th cm. The interpretation of the observed polarization becomes less direct because it depends on more poorly known parameters than in the case of the absence of Alfven waves.
The acceleration of solar flare protons by the cyclotron damping of intense Alfven wave turbulence in a magnetic trap is considered. The energy diffusion coefficient is computed for a near-isotropic distribution of super-Alfvenic protons, and a steady-state solution for the particle spectrum is found for both transit-time and diffusive losses out of the ends of the trap. The acceleration time to a characteristic energy of about 20 MeV per nucleon can be as short as 10 sec. On the basis of phenomenological arguments, it is inferred that the Alfven wave spectrum typically has an inverse square frequency dependence and that the correlation time of the turbulence lies in the range between 0.5 and 50 msec.
Abstract In the diffuse aurora, magnetospheric electrons, initially precipitated from the inner plasma sheet via wave-particle interaction processes, degrade in the atmosphere toward lower energies, and produce secondary electrons via impact ionization of the neutral atmosphere. These initially precipitating electrons of magnetospheric origin can also be additionally reflected back into the magnetosphere, leading to a series of multiple reactions by the two magnetically conjugate atmospheres that can greatly impact the initially precipitating flux at the upper ionospheric boundary (700-800 km). The resultant population of secondary and primary electrons cascades toward lower energies and escape back to the magnetosphere. Escaping upward electrons traveling from the ionosphere can be trapped in the magnetosphere, as they travel inside the loss cone, via Coulomb collisions with the cold plasma, or by interactions with various plasma waves. Even though this scenario is intuitively transparent, this magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling element is not considered in any of the existing diffuse aurora research. Nevertheless, as we demonstrate in this letter, this process has the potential to dramatically affect the formation of electron precipitated fluxes in the regions of diffuse auroras.
A quasi open MHD (Magnetohydrodynamic) scale anomalous transport controlled boundary layer model is proposed, where the MHD collective behavior of magnetofluids (direct dynamo effect, anomalous viscous interaction and anomalous diffusion of the mass and the magnetic field) plays the main role in the conversion of the Solar Wind (SW) kinetic and magnetic energy into electromagnetic energy in the Magnetosphere (MSp). The so called direct and indirect dynamo effects are based on inductive and purely dissipative energy conversion, respectively. The self organization ability of vector fields in turbulent magnetofluids implies an inductive response of the plasma, which leads to the direct dynamo effect. The direct dynamo effect describes the direct formation of localized field aligned currents and the transverse Alfven waves and provides a source for MHD scale anomalous diffusivity and viscosity. The SW/MSp coupling depends on the dynamo efficiency.
Future space observatory missions are forecasting the need for sensing and controlling wave front error and system alignment stability to picometer scale. Picometer stability performance demands precision knowledge of the mirror and metering structure materials to the same degree. A high-speed electronic speckle pattern interferometer was designed and built to demonstrate measurements of both static and dynamic responses of picometer amplitudes in materials of diffuse surface subjected to very low energy disturbances. This paper describes the details of a test to impart a dynamic disturbance of picometer scale and measure the response of a composite material.The results of the test are also reported and show conclusively that sub-picometer scale effects can be accurately measured in an open test environment outside a vacuum chamber.
Ionization of cometary neutral molecules produces ions which are picked up by the solar wind. The cometary ion pickup process for comet Giacobini-Zinner is studied in two ways: (1) with a test particle method in which trajectories are numerically calculated for several thousand ions whose initial locations were chosen randomly with probability proportional to the neutral density and (2) with a quasi-linear diffusion model. The cometary ion distribution function was calculated with the test particle model at several locations upstream of the bow shock and for several types of magnetic fluctuations (or waves). These waves were allowed to propagate in both directions along the magnetic field at the Alfven speed. Both pitch angle scattering and energy diffusion are evident in the derived ion distributions. The monochromatic waves result in less ion acceleration than turbulent fluctuations with about the same amplitude. The calculated ion distribution functions are in reasonable agreement with the distributions measured in the vicinity of comet Giacobini-Zinner in 1985 by particle detectors on the ICE spacecraft when the ratio of power in sunward propagating Alfven waves to the power in antisunward propagating waves is assumed to lie between about 20% and 50%. However, the quasi-linear diffusion model results agree best with the measured distribution functions when the power ratio is only about 3 percent.
Dissipation of gravity waves (GWs) and resultant momentum flux deposition and eddy diffusion significantly influence the atmospheric structure and circulation. Using the temperature profiles measured by the SABER instrument (2002–2021), we derive the global GW action and its scale height (HAm). Comparing to the background scale height (H), we identify a persistent layer of enhanced GW dissipation (HAm/H > 2) in the upper mesosphere. The enhanced dissipation is primarily centered at 80–85 km with a vertical range of ∼8–20 km. At middle and high latitudes, the enhanced dissipation extends down to ∼60 km and is located above the eastward (westward) wind peak in winter (summer). At low latitudes, enhanced dissipation occurs around the wind reversals. The possible mechanisms of enhanced dissipation include wave refraction, wind filtering, and reduced static stability. The persistent layer of enhanced dissipation identified here provide observational evidence for GW dissipation constrains in models.
Protons that are convected into the inner magnetosphere in response to enhanced magnetic activity can resonate with ducted plasmaspheric hiss in the outer plasmasphere via an anomalous Doppler-shifted cyclotron resonance. Plasmaspheric hiss is a right-hand-polarized electromagnetic emission that is observed to fill the plasmasphere on a routine basis. When plasmaspheric hiss is confined within field-aligned ducts or guided along density gradients, wave normal angles remain largely below 45 deg. This allows resonant interactions with ions at typical ring current and radiation belt energies to take place. Such field-aligned ducts have been observed both within the plasmasphere and in regions outside of the plasmasphere. Wave intensities are estimated using statistical information from studies of detached plasma regions. Diffusion coefficients are presented for a range of L shells and proton energies for a fixed wave distribution. Harmonic resonances in the range N = +/-100 are considered in order to include interactions between hiss at 100 Hz to 2 kHz frequencies, and protons in the energy range between approximately 10 keV and 1000 keV. Diffusion timescales are estimated to be of the order of tens of days and comparable to or shorter than lifetimes for Coulomb decay and charge exchange losses over most of the energy and spatial ranges of interest.